Trevor Bayliss admits England ‘didn’t have the will to fight’

Trevor Bayliss gives England flops homework as he admits his team ‘didn’t have the will to fight’ in defeat to West Indies

West Indies clinched a decisive home series victory against England in Antigua

The tourists slipped from 35-0 to 132 all out in their second innings on Saturday

Trevor Bayliss gave his team 24 hours to consider a set of questions

There is clearly an urgent need for answers following their recent displays

Trevor Bayliss admitted England lacked the ‘will to fight’ following their latest batting humiliation in the Caribbean, yet believes they remain favourites for the Ashes this summer.

The England coach was surveying the wreckage of a 10-wicket defeat in Antigua with his players on Sunday, having given them 24 hours to consider a set of questions in his post-match debrief.

The Australian refused to disclose the nature of these but there is clearly an urgent need for answers after a West Indies team languishing eighth in the Test rankings reclaimed the Wisden Trophy inside seven days of this three-match series.

West Indies clinched a decisive home series victory against England in Antigua

Attempting to pinpoint the errors of an all-too familiar failure by his batsmen at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, where they followed a first-innings 187 with only 132 second time around, Bayliss said: ‘I don’t think there’s one reason. We haven’t seemed to have the will to fight.

‘There have been some very loose shots and other guys have been very tentative. It’s been one or the other, with not a lot in between. And that’s the art of batting.’

Worryingly, it appears to be a lost art for this England team, particularly when conditions are bowler-friendly, and their latest travails came in a week that has seen Australia address their own top-order frailties by putting a woeful spell of one Test hundred in 13 months behind them with four in their final match before the Ashes.

Despite admitting he is concerned about the psychological damage consecutive crushings might have on his team, Bayliss believes England’s ability to bounce back from setbacks keeps them in the box seat ahead of the first ball going down at Edgbaston on August 1.

‘We’re playing at home, so I’d like to think so. We know Australia will come over and it will be a full-on series, but hopefully that inspires our guys to turn things around,’ he said

Joe Root’s men were rushed to another emphatic defeat within three days in Antigua

‘It is a shock to the system when you lose. If this shocks them into doing something about it and trying to work out what they can do differently, so these types of collapses don’t happen, it will be a good thing in the long run. But you don’t have to motivate too many guys to be up for the Ashes.’

Bayliss was due to field the feedback from his players around the team hotel’s pool — ‘It won’t be me standing in front of them like a schoolteacher,’ he said — determined to allow them to implement their own changes ahead of the final Test in St Lucia, starting this Saturday.

In a stark admission, Bayliss added: ‘One of the difficult things is we’ve got six guys who are probably suited to batting at six and seven and we’ve got to try to fit them into the team.

‘We’re looking for some top-order players to do well and we have been for a while. But there doesn’t seem to be the ready-made player.’